


Fair Play

by aperplexingpuzzle



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, Post-Canon, Red String of Fate, Short One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, Unspecified Setting, possible pre-relationship, this one’s vague yo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 12:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25969699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aperplexingpuzzle/pseuds/aperplexingpuzzle
Summary: “No,” Link said.Ghirahim stared up at the boy uncomprehending as he sheathed his sword, stepping back as if to deny himself the opportunity that even mere proximity allowed.“...No?”—When Ghirahim is discovered at the point of death by the one person with the greatest incentive to kill him, he expects these to be his final moments.Nothing goes as expected.
Relationships: Ghirahim & Link (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 74





	Fair Play

**Author's Note:**

> Short, sweet, not too terribly original but dangit if I don’t love every iteration of this scenario anyway. Written for a tumblr prompt as I try to drag myself back into writing, and posted here by request :)
> 
> (tumblr handle is @a-perplexing-puzzle btw)

“No,” Link said.

Ghirahim stared up at the boy uncomprehending as he sheathed his sword, stepping back as if to deny himself the opportunity that even mere proximity allowed.

“...No?”

“No,” Link repeated firmly, then added, “I’m not killing you like this.” It was perhaps the longest string of words Ghirahim had ever pulled from his lips, and the dying demon felt their usual positions disconcertingly reversed in that moment, with himself reduced to single word replies.

 _“Why?”_ he asked, and Link’s brow furrowed as if he thought the answer obvious.

“You could have killed me the first time we met. You didn’t.”

Movement of any kind was agony, but even that couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled and gasped through Ghirahim’s lips. Did Link’s sense of _fair play_ inhibit him?

“You were too far beneath my notice for me to bother,” he spat derisively, further incensed by the realization that Link must now think the same of him. Weakened so that he could no longer stand, his raw core bare and at the point of shattering, Ghirahim certainly posed no threat to the human or his kin. “Mercy had no part in it.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Link maintained, backing up another few steps. Something kept him from turning away entirely, though—maybe some voyeuristic fascination? “This makes us even.”

This time Ghirahim’s laughter came more as a groaning wheeze, as unstoppable as the last. Existence was just so painfully funny sometimes.

“ _Even._ Of course.” His eyes fell shut wearily. “I don’t recall leaving you for dead at the end of our first encounter, but if it assuages your guilty conscience then why not? You may as well call us even.”

Link’s silence in return was much more familiar than his voice, and Ghirahim paid it no heed, each passing second dragging him deeper under a haze of pain until he almost forgot the boy’s presence entirely. Then he heard footsteps—towards him, not away—and Link spoke up hesitantly.

“If I help you…”

It was enough to make Ghirahim stir again, his eyes creaking open in disbelief. Carefully, Link knelt beside him, his hands hovering over Ghirahim’s prone figure as if unsure where to touch or what to do.

“If I help you…” Link tried again, pausing once more to lick his lips. “What’s to stop you from…”

 _Burning his floating home to the ground. Slicing open the spirit maiden just to hear her scream._ Any number of unspoken atrocities hung at the edge of that question, but rather than revel in their sweet potential, Ghirahim found his attention drawn to the uncertain storm of Link’s eyes. Even fearful, even _furious,_ Ghirahim had never seen them shine with anything less than pure determination… but then, the goddess no longer guided his hands, did she? Not as directly as she once had, at least. What did Hylia’s chosen see in his own pale eyes?

“Nothing whatsoever,” Ghirahim said softly. 

With another piercing look, Link shifted on his knees, took a deep breath… and nodded.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked, and Ghirahim felt his lips curl up helplessly. For the third time he laughed, a sighing hiss that barely stirred the air from his chest.

Perhaps he had misinterpreted their thread of fate all along.


End file.
